EP1031913A2 - A communication terminal having a predictive editor application. - Google Patents

Abstract

A communication terminal having a display; a keypad having a plurality ofkeys associated with several letters each; processor means controlling thedisplay means in accordance with the operation of the keypad;a selectablepredictive editor program for generating an output containing words matchinga received string of ambiguous key strokes, said predictive editor program hasa number of associated vocabularies including at least one languagedependent dictionary and at least one dictionary receiving user defined inputs.An editor application is controlled by the processor means communicates withsaid predictive editor programs for generating matching words based on anambiguous string of key strokes. Second memory means of thecommunication terminal for storing user inputted data. The processor meansautomatically searches said second memory means for words and copiesthese words into said at least one dictionary for receiving user defined inputsand associated with said predictive editor program.

Description

The invention relates to a communication terminal having a predictive editorapplication for entering and editing data. Such a terminal can be a cellular orcordless phone or a communicator. The editor is used for editing text formessage handling, phonebook editing and searching etc.

Tegic Communications, Inc has developed an intelligent software protocol thatallows the users to enter ambiguous key strokes into an electronic device.The predictive editor program, named T9®, automatically determines from allthe possible matches, the intended word. The predictive editor programmatches entered keystrokes with completed words from a linguistic database.This concept is subject for US 5.818.437 and WO 98/33111.

An object of the invention is to provide a communication terminal using thepredictive editor program alllowing the user in an easy way to also handle themost common names of person the user communicates with.

This object is achieved by a communication terminal having a display; akeypad having a plurality of keys associated with several letters each;processor means controlling the display means in accordance with the operationof the keypad; a predictive editor program for generating an outputcontaining word matching a received string of ambiguous key strokes. Thepredictive editor program has a number of associated vocabularies includingat least one language dependent dictionary and at least one dictionaryreceiving user defined inputs. An editor application controlled by theprocessor means communicates with said predictive editor programs forgenerating matching words based on an ambiguous string of key strokes.Second memory means of the communication terminal is used for storing userinputted data. The processor means automatically searches said second memory means for words and copies these word into said at least onedictionary for receiving user defined inputs and associated with said predictiveeditor program. Hereby data available in an electronical phonebook databasewill automatically be copied into the user defined dictionary even though thisdata was not entered by using the predictive editor program. Also data comingfrom a new SIM card may enter the user defined dictionary by this concept.

The invention furthermore relates to a communication terminal having adisplay; a keypad having a plurality of keys associated with several letterseach; processor means controlling the display means in accordance with theoperation of the keypad; a selectable predictive editor program for generatingan output containing word matching a received string of ambiguous keystrokes, said predictive editor program has a number of associatedvocabularies including at least one language dependent dictionary and atleast one dictionary receiving user defined inputs. An editor applicationcontrolled by the processor means communicates with said predictive editorprograms for generating matching words based on an ambiguous string of keystrokes, said editor application stores words that have to be entered in anunambiguous way in one of said least one dictionary receiving user definedinputs. The processor means associates a storing time for the unambiguousentered words stored in dictionary receiving user defined inputs; and theprocessor means maintains the dictionary containing the unambiguouslyentered words in accordance with the storing time. The user defineddictionary will hereby delete seldomly used words when the memory becomesfull.

The invention does furthermore relate to a communication terminal with akeypad having a key for requesting the processor to replace said one wordfrom the list of matching words, and said processor handled this list of matching words as and endless loop. Hereby alternative matches becomesavailable in an easy way.

The invention does furthermore relate to a communication terminal with akeypad having a key for requesting input of a special sign from a list ofspecial signs in the text string, and wherein the keypad has a key forrequesting the processor to replace a special sign with the next special signfrom the list of special signs, and said processor handled this list of specialsigns as and endless loop. Hereby alternative special signs become availablein an easy way.

Finally the invention relates to a communication terminal having an editorapplication that opens a word for editing with the predictive editor programwhen a cursor is placed at the beginning or the end of the word, whereby theeditor application regenerates a sequence of key strokes based on thepresently displayed match, and whereby the editor application adds new keystrokes to the regenerated sequence of key strokes in dependence of theposition of the cursor and the key pressed. the editor is hereby able toregenerate the sequence of key strokes and the user does not have to re-enterthe full word when he wants to add a new beginning or ending to theword.

For a better understanding of the present invention and to understand howthe same may be brought into effect reference will now be made, by way ofexample only, to accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 schematically illustrates a preferred embodiment of a hand portablephone according to the invention.

Fig. 2 schematically shows the essential parts of a telephone forcommunication with a cellular or cordless network.

FIG. 3 shows the major components of the predicitive editor according to apreferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 shows the architecture of the ambiguity eliminating software accordingto a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 5 schematically illustrates an alternative embodiment of a hand portablephone according to the invention.

Fig. 6 illustrates a sequence of displays illustrating the text entry according tothe invention.

Fig. 7 schematically illustrates a further alternative embodiment of a handportable phone according to the invention.

Fig. 8 illustrates a sequence of displays illustrating the handling no matchingwords according to the invention.

Fig. 9 illustrates a sequence of displays illustrating the handling of acompound word according to the invention.

Fig.10 illustrates a sequence of displays illustrating the text clearingaccording to the invention.

Fig. 11 illustrates a flow diagram for the editor application according to theinvention.

Fig. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of a phone according to the invention,and it will be seen that the phone, which is generally designated by 1,comprises a user interface having akeypad 2, adisplay 3, an on/offbutton 4fig. 3), a speaker 5 (only openings are shown in fig. 1), and a microphone 6(only openings are shown in fig. 1). Thephone 1 according to the preferredembodiment is adapted for communication via a cellular network, but couldhave been designed for a cordless network as well.

According to the preferred embodiment thekeypad 2 has a first group 7 ofkeys as alphanumeric keys, asoft key 8, and anavigation key 10.Furthermore the keypad includes a "clear"key 9. The present functionality ofthesoft key 8 is shown in a separate field in thedisplay 3 just above thekey8. This key layout is characteristic of the Nokia 3110™ phone and the Nokia5110™ phone.

Thephone 1 has an inner housing of which grippingareas 23 are visible. Anexchangeable front cover 21 andrear cover 22 are snapped onto the innerhousing.

Fig. 2 schematically shows the most important parts of a preferredembodiment of the phone, said parts being essential to the understanding ofthe invention. The preferred embodiment of the phone of the invention isadapted for use in connection with the GSM 900MHz and GSM 1800 MHznetwork, but, of course, the invention may also be applied in connection withother phone networks. Theprocessor 18 controls the communication with thenetwork via the transmitter/receiver circuit 19 and anantenna 20 that will bediscussed in details below.

Themicrophone 6 transforms the user's speech into analog signals, thesignals formed thereby are A/D converted in an A/D converter (not shown) before the speech is encoded in anaudio part 14. The encoded speech signalis transferred to theprocessor 18, which i.a. supports the GSM terminalsoftware. Theprocessor 18 also forms the interface to the peripheral units ofthe apparatus, including aRAM memory 17a and aFlash ROM memory 17b,aSIM card 16, thedisplay 3 and the keypad 2 (as well as data, power supply,etc.). Theaudio part 14 speech-decodes the signal, which is transferred fromtheprocessor 18 to theearpiece 5 via a D/A converter (not shown).

Basic Operation of the predictive editor.

FIG. 3 shows the major components of the predicitive editor according to theinvention. The man-machine interface is established by thedisplay 3 and thekeyboard 2. Theprocessor 18 executes instructions and reads and writesdata from amemory 17. Software instructions in thememory 17 include anoperating system 40, a disambiguation program 42 and its vocabularies 41,and optionally one ormore application programs 43, 44.

Target applications programs 43, 44 for the predicitice editor used in ahandset include the electronic phone book memory, notepad, messages,calendar, and internet browsing.

According to the preferred embodiment of the invention the predictive editorwill be used as an alternative together with the standard text editor used inhandsets. This standard editor is also based on a plurality of keys eachassociated with several letters. However the individual letter is selected bymulti-pressing the key in question.

Data is entered on thekeypad 2 which comprises of individual alphanumericalkeys 7. Most of these keys 7 have multiple meanings, representedby letter, numbers and symbols printed on the keys. The entered text isshown in thedisplay 3 of the phone. The text already entered (and accepted by the user) is shown in the same text format as the standard display formatof the phone. The word presently being entered is underligned or reversed incolors in order to indicate that the letter string has not been fixed yet. Thepredictive editor is able to interprete individual keys and multiple keysequences in several ways simultaneously.

A selection list 50 lists the various interpretations and options. A selection key51 steps through items in the selection list 50, allowing the user succesively toreplace the displayed candidate with the following candidate on the list 50.The list 50 is handled as an endless loop whereby the originally displayedcandidate is displayed again when the user has scrolled trough the otheritems on the list by using selection key 51. The candidate is selected bypressing a spacer key 53.

System Architecture

FIG. 4 shows the architecture of the disambiguating software. An input from akeypad 2 is processed in aninput manager 60. Input data is via internal busmeans 64 passed to aprocessing module 61, which keeps a record of thecurrent key sequence until the user has accepted a word based on thissequence by pressing the space key 52. When a key stroke has beenreceived by processingmodule 61, the current key sequence iscommunicated via internal bus means 64 to apredicition processor 62, whichforwards the sequence to one or more modules 41 acting as electronicvocabularities.

Thevocabulary modules 41a, 41b, 41c, ...41N work in parallel and respondindividually if they contain data matching the current key stroke sequence.Onevocabulary module 41a might include a dictionary containing words in alanguage, e.g. English, defined by the user and used as editing language.According to the preferred embodiment some of thevocabulary modules 41a, 41b, 41c, ...41N may contain personalized user defined words, e.g entered byusing the standard editor of the phone (when the predictive editor did not findthe word the user was looking for) or by copying the names from thephonebook into one of the vocabulary modules. In the preferredembodimentvocabulary module 41b and 41c contains the word entered by the standardeditor and word copied from the phonebook, respectively.

Thevocabulary modules 41a, 41b, 41c, ...41N often supply a plurality ofmatching word - either being displayed or available through the selection list50. Thepredicition processor 62 accumulates a complete list of matchingwords for the selection list 50 from allvocabulary modules 41a, 41b, 41c,...41N. When predicitionprocessor 62 has finalized the processing, theprocessing module 61 transfers the selection list 50 to adisplay manager 63and thedisplay 3 via the internal bus means 64.

In the most cases, the disambiguation software will work as an editor serverand therefore pass data strings directly to another client orapplicationprogram 43, 44 running on theprocessor 18, too. In this case thekeypad 2,theinput processor 60 and thedisplay manager 63 will be integrated in theapplication program 43, 44 using the predictive editor as a server. Theseapplications may include the electronic phone book memory, notepad,messages, calendar, and internet browsing.

Vocabulary look-up processing.

Vocabulary look-up processing is handled by a computer program beingavailable on the market today. Therefore these parts will not be discribedfurther. Both the disambiguation software and the basic dictionaries in aplurality of languages are available from Tegic Communications, Inc. underthe tradename T9. As well the disambiguation software and the basicdictionaries (e.g. the English one) requires 100 kbyte memory space each.

The basic dictionaries are compressed in order to reduce the memoryrequirements. The user defined directories are less memory consuming andonly requires 2-4 kbyte each according to the preferred embodiment. Thesedictionaries are not compressed and work advantagously according to the firstin first out principle.

Userinterface for the predictive editor program.

The preferred embodiment of the predictive text input according to theinvention will be based on Tegic's T9 technology. The core functionality of T9is as discussed above its ability to generate the intended text onto the screenfrom ambiguous keystrokes entered on a phone keypad, requiring only onekeystroke per letter. This provides a more efficient method of entering textthan the traditional multi-tap method requiring many more keystrokes perletter due to the multiple mappings of letters to a given key.

The predictive editor program makes this possible because it is based on alarge intelligent dictionary that allows the editor to predict what word the userintended based on the number of key-presses and combination of key-presses.Often several words will match the keystrokes that are input and theuser chooses the desired match from those offered by the predictive editorprogram.

While the phone in fig. 1 had only a single soft key, the phone in fig. 5 isequipped with two soft keys. Fig. 5 shows an alternative embodiment of aphone according to the invention. The major dirrefence between the twophones shown in fig. 1 and 5, respectively, is the keys in the keypad and as itwill be explained later the soft key functionality labels displayed in thedisplay3. The same referral numbers are used in fig. 1 and 5 for items having similarfunctionality.

According to the alternative embodiment thekeypad 2 has a first group 7 ofkeys as alphanumeric keys, twosoft keys 24 and 25, and anavigation key 28having the same funtionality as thenavigation key 10 but placed centrallybelow thedisplay 3. Furthermore the keypad and off-hook key 30 and an on-hookkey 31. The present functionality of thesoft key 24 and 25 is shown inseparate fields in thedisplay 3 adjacent to said keys. This key layout ischaracteristic of the Nokia 2110™ phone and the Nokia 6110™ phone.

With reference to fig. 6 a display sequence illustrating the basic operation ofthe text input based on the predictive editor program for the embodimentillustrated in fig. 5. In the initial display (the first display), acursor 70indicates that the editor is ready for a "new" word to be typed to the editor.Above the text area anicon 71 indicates the status of the phone (spelling)based on the predictive editor program. Furthermore the twosoftkey labels 72and 73 indicates that the functionality of the softkeys during this are "options"and "back". When pressing the "back"softkey 24 the phone leaves the textediting mode and jumps one step up in the menu structure. When pressingthe "options"softkey 25 the user is offered a list of actions as "send the text asan SMS", "save the text", "clear the display" and "switch between predictiveeditor and multi tap editor (the traditional text editor of a phone)". Furthermorethe "options"softkey 25 will provide the user with some editing tools that willbe discussed later on.

When the phone only has onesoftkey 8 as shown in fig. 1, thesoftkey 8 willhave the functionality "options", while the "back" functionality is handled by theclear key 9.

Table 1 shows the layout of the alphanumeric key 7. When starting to type aword, the user simply presses the digit key containing the desired letter once.Fig. 6 second to fifth display shows how the user presses the following keys(once) in order to type the word "case":

"2 abc " to insert the "c"

"2 abc " to insert the "a"

"7 pqrs " to insert the "s"

"3 def " to insert the "e"

That means in total only four key-presses.

Often when typing the first few letters of a word, the predictive editor programis not yet able to display the intended characters and may erroneously displayan unintended string of characters. These are therefore dispalyed as merelytemporary characters in the display while the predictive editor program isevolving a match. When continuing the typing of the remaining characters inthe word, the displayed characters will become more accurate. No matterwhat the display shows, the user simply types the next character in the wordhe wants to type.

During the inputting of a word to the predictive editor program, all thecharacters in the word are shown withunderligning 74. This indicates that theword has not yet been finalised and all the characters shown underligned maystill change as the predictive editor program evolves a match to thekeypresses. As long as the entering of a word is in progress the alreadyentered part of the word remains underligned. It is furthermore seen that thesoftkey label 73 for theright softkey 24 changes to the "Clear" functionality.

The user accepts a word by pressing the space key (the key 67 -table 1), orby switching the predictive editor program off. When the user accepts a wordthis will be freezed meaning that the predictive editor program is no longerworking on it and the marking 74 will be replaced thecursor bar 70. Whenspaces between words are deleted, the two words are concatenated into one,but the user is allowed to continue adding characters to the first word. In anysituation, the word will be finally inserted, the text will no longer be underlinedand thecursor 70 re-appears after the accepted word.

The user can delete characters backwards in a word by simply pressing the"Clear" key 9 once for each character to be deleted. The active word might inthis situation also change based on the remaining key sequence. This isillustrated in fig. 10 where the suggested match "cas" in the display ischanged to "ac" by deleting a key stroke and changed again to "can bypressing the "6 -mno" key.

If the user deletes a complete word, the phone return to the "initial word entry"mode, and the user can again type a new word.

If the user has typed a word and frozen the word by pressing the space key67, and then clears this space after the word, then thecursor 70 will be placedat the end of the word but the predictive editor program will at this point nolonger be active (the already entered word will not be underligned). If the userclears from this state, he will remove the last character of existing word, andthen this word which was left of thecursor 70 will become underligned andactive again.

Special characters.

While the predictive editor program is active, pressing the 1-key 65 will allowa smart insertion of punctuation. This means that the predictive editorprogram will try to predict, based on the situation, which commonly used punctuation mark, is intended. These may include the period, comma,question mark, exclamation point, and apostrophe. If the user e.g. wants totype the word "can't", he can simply press the following sequence:

"2 abc "to insert the "c"

"2 abc "to insert the "a"

"6 mno" to insert the "n"

"1" to insert the apostrophe

"8 tuv" to insert the "t"

The default value will most often suggest a period, if no other matches seemappropriate. The match function available on *-key 66 will also work in thissituation, allowing the user to toggle through other choices like period, commaand similar special characters available on the 1-key 65.

Inserting digits can be done in two ways. First of all, long-pressing a digit inany situation will directly insert the corresponding digit into the editor. This isconvenient when only inserting one or two digits. However, when entering along string of digits then the menu "Options" has a submenu "Insert Number"that gives access to an insert number query window allowing the user to inserta string of digits. This is done by pressing the corresponding digit keys on thekeypad for the numbers desired. After entering the desired number,the userpresses an "OK" softkey and the text editting starts again.

The menu "Options" has another submenu "Insert Symbol" in which the useris given access to a plurality of symbols, characters and signs such as: @, $,£ and letters not occuring in the language used in the dictionary. The user canscroll though the candidates by using the "*"-key 66.

Searching alternative matches.

In some situations, the key sequence typed by the user might allow several words to "fit". In this situation, the predictive editor program will always firstsuggest the two most "common" words from the core dictionary. Here after allthe whole word matches from the user dictionary will be shown, and finally allremaining matches from the core dictionary are shown. In many cases, theuser might be looking for another word other than the immediately suggestedone. There might be two or more possible matches to the key sequence. Thisis most often the case with short words.

The user can switch to other possible matches by pressing the *-key 66. Thiswill immediately give the next possible match.

However the "options"softkey 25 will include a submenu called "matches"giving access to a list of matches the user can scroll though the list bypressing the left soft key 25 that will have the functionality "Next match". Thealternative match candidate will replace the active underligned word in the textand the alternative match candidate is selected in the same way as thedefault match candidate - e.g. by pressing the space-key 67. The list ishandled as a loop. If no matches beyond what is already displayed then anote will be displayed saying "No Match Found".

If there are several matches to the key-sequence typed by the user, pressingthe *-key 66 will immediately give the next possible match (the second mostcommon match). A specific match from the *-key 66 is finalized by finalisingthe word as usual e.g. by inserting a space.

When theleft softkey 25 is used for matching purpose the right softkey 26 hasand "Undo" functionality. This means when a match other than the defaultmatch is shown pressing the right softkey 26 will clear the match and revert tothe first match for that key sequence. Pressing theclear key 9 will undo amatch, effectively backstepping one match.

If thecursor 70 is touching a word that is not underligned and therefor notactive, pressing the *-key 66 will also make the word active again and offerthe next match.

No matching word

If the predictive editor program runs out of possible word matches during thetyping of a word, the display will show aunique error symbol 75; fig. 8, firstdisplay after the entered characters and the left Softkey 25 (fig. 5) will changefunctionality label 72 from "Options" to "Spell" providing a shortcut to theinsert word query where the user can manually enter the desired word basedon the multi tap editor normally used in the phones. The query should appearempty as seen in the second display of fig. 8. The user is allowed to enterletters by the well known multi-tap method in the position marked by thebar76. The user accepts the word by pressing the left soft key 25 having thefunctionality label 72 whereby the editor returns to editing by using thepredictive editor program.

When the phone has only asingle softkey 8 as in fig. 1 theSoftkey 8 willchange from "Options" to "Insert" also providing the shortcut to the insert wordquery where the user can manually enter the desired word. The query shouldappear empty.

If the user continues to use the predictive editor program the last enteredcharacter will hence be displayed as an error symbol, to indicate to the userthat no further possible words matches to the typed key sequence. The phonewill emit a short alert beep to draw attention to indicate the lack of matches. Ifthe user types more keys in the situation the display will not show morecharacters and an information note saying "No Match Found" will be shown.

If the user finds out that he misspelled the word, he can simply press the"Clear"key 9, until the incorrect character can be changed. If the userchooses to accept a misspelled or unknown word e.g. by inserting spacecharacter, the error symbol will disappear, and the last recognised word willbe inserted into the text.

Cursor movement.

Since the predictive editor program input method basically can only handleadding or deleting at the end of a word, the cursor handling is optimised forthis.

Given the situation where the cursor is placed at the end of the text. By usingthenavigation key 28 for scrolling left the editor will activate the entire word tothe left of thecursor 70, allowing the user to add additional characters to theword (using both the pre-existing word and the new key-presses to generatematches).

Scrolling left again will move thecursor 70 to the left of the word (thepreviously underlined word now no longer active for editing and therefore nolonger underlined) and the editor is ready to type a new word.

Scrolling left again moves the cursor to the end of previous word, underliningit, allowing the user to add to that existing word. This cycle repeats whennavigating through the text.

If the user moves thecursor 70 through several consecutive spaces, thecursor 70 will be moved one space at a time. Also, when moving throughsymbols, numbers, etc., the cursor is moved one character at a time.

If the user wants to add a new word to the end or beginning of an existingword by using the predictive editor program, this is simply done by first movingthe cursor to the end or beginning of the existing word, respectively. Fromhere, the user simply starts typing the new word.

The editor application opens the already written word for editing with thepredictive editor program by placing the cursor in the desired position. Thenthe editor application regenerates the sequence of key strokes based on thepresently displayed matching word. When the editor application adds new keystrokes to the regenerated sequence of key stokes in dependence of theposition of the cursor and the key pressed. this new string is used by thepredictive editor program to find new matches.

If the user wants to edit an existing word by using the predictive editorprogram, this is done first by moving the cursor just after the word (activatingthe word in question causing it to be underlined). Then the user can directlyadd e.g. an ending to the word or if desired, can delete characters by pressingtheclear key 9.

Whenever the "Insert Word" query is selected, by pressing OK softkey, thewords that were entered in the query are added both to the user dictionary41b as well as to the main editor window. A confirmation note "Word Saved"appears as well. Upon re-entry to the predictive editor program, insertion pointwill be after the last letter of the manually only spelled word.

Options lists

The "Option" menu in the predictive editor program will include somesubmenu items as:

Matches

Next Match

Insert Word

Insert Number

Insert Symbol

Dictionary

The match related items and the insert related items have already beendiscussed above. All languages supported by the predictive editor program forthe phone will appear as choice items under "Dictionary" submenu item. Thedefault language follows advatangeusly the display text language of thephone. This default may be to turn the predictive editor program off and revertto traditonal input for the display text language when the predictive editorprogram does not include a dictionary supporting the language in question.Changing to another language will simply cause the predictive editor programto run in the new language. The user dictionary will not be affected by this.

User dictionary.

The predictive editor program supports a user dictionary, where words notinitially known by the program can be stored. Any manually entered string ofcharacters separated by a space will generate a new item in the userdictionary. When words are added to the user dictionary, they will becomepredictable by the predictive editor program thereafter. The storing of newwords to the user dictionary is completely automatic, and is done whenever anew word is created. Only words not already in the core dictionary or the userdictionary will be added under the control of theprediction processor 62.

Words entered using the predictive editor program will already be in the coredictionary and will not need to be added to the user dictionary. However insome languages there exists a few cases where words should be added to the user dictionary. According to the preferred embodiment these cases shallbe handled as follows:

• When the user creates a compound word in the predictive editor program,the word is added when the word is finalised.
• When the user deletes the space (or other delimiter) between two words,resulting in concatenation of these two words. The new word will then beadded to the user dictionary after a timeout to avoid accidentally addingwords when intention is editing.

Furthermore when names are saved in the phone book they will be linked tothe user dictionary so they will be recognised as candidates by T9 whenentering text.

When thephone 1 according to the preferred embodiment of the invention isstarted up or when a new SIM card has been inserted the full phonebookmemory from theSIM card 16 is copied to theuser directory 41c of the phone.On theSIM card 16 data is stored as preformatted records and these recordsare copied word by word into theuser directory 41c.

For simplicity, the user dictionary is common for all languages. This meansthat the user dictionary can contain words that were added through the InsertWord submenu in many different languages. The size of a user dictionary willbe limited by the available memory, so a user dictionary will be built up as a"cyclic" buffer, where the "oldest" words - when the buffer is full - will beautomatically deleted when new words are added. A words creation date isreset each time it is used, so that even though a word was added to thedictionary long time ago, it will not be deleted if frequently used. In summary,the first word to be deleted from the user dictionary will be a word that was added to the user dictionary a long time ago and has not been used muchsince.

In practice theprocessor 18 adds the storing time to the dictionary when aword is stored. This storing time will be updated the next time theprocessor18 tries to add the same word.

Compound words.

In a further alternative embodiment shown in fig. 7, thenavigation key 28shown in fig. 5 is replaced by aroller key 29 having scroll up/downfunctionality and selection by pressing the roller body. This concept isdescribed in the applicants pending US application 08/923.696 filed 4.September 1997. This application is hereby incorporated by reference. In thisfurther alternative embodiment pressing of the roller body will accept the wordas it is, and no space will be inserted after the word. This is especially usefulto create compound words, which are important in many languages.

In many languages such as German and the Scandinavian languages you areallowed to create new words (compound words) by connecting standardwords. The predictive editor program dictionary only contains very commoncompound words, so it will not guess a Danish word like e.g."laserkavitetslaengde" meaning "laser cavity length" in English. This is not aproblem in English, since compound words hardly occur. But in Danish,German, Finnish etc, it is valuable for the user to type the compound words inparts by writing the first part of the compound word, then "freeze" this part,and then continue with the remaining part of the compound word.

Pressing the navigation key 29 (fig. 7) or rolling up once or rolling down oncewould remove the highlighting from under the current word and show thecursor at the end of the word, allowing then user to add additional characters with out changing the start of the compund word intended. The same will beobtained by scrolling left or right once by using the navigation key 10 (fig. 1) or28 (fig. 5). Also, a short press of thepower key 4 would also freeze thecurrent word and allow easy creation of a compound word.

Fig 9 shows how the user has spelled theword 77 "steam", and when thisword is still active (underlined) he presses thenavigation key 28 whereby theunderlining disappears. When the user continues to enter letters only theletters 78 entered after the pressing of thenavigation key 28 will be active.However when the entering is finalized the full word "steamlocomotive" will bedisplayed as a single word.

A further advantage of this concept is that the user when writing the wordindicates where he wants to split (wrap the word) the full compound word if hehas to split it over two lines in the display.

The basic editing concept is shown in fig. 11. When the predictive editor isstarted up the editor starts to wait for a key stroke instep 100. When a keystroke is detected it is added to a key stroke string and transferred to thepredictive editor program instep 101. The predictive editor program respondsto this input instep 102 and instep 103 theprocessor 18 investigates whetherthe predictive editor program could find possible matches.

If no possible matches is found instep 103 the last possible match isdisplayed instep 104 together with an error symbol (fig. 8, first display) andthe funtionality of the left soft key is changed to a short cut to the multi-tapspell mode.

If the user instep 105 accepts (by pressing the space key) the last possiblematch this word will be added to the text. Hereafter the key stroke string iscleared instep 106 and the editor starts to wait for a key stroke instep 100.

If the user instep 106 goes to the multi-tap spell mode he can enter theintended word in an unambiguous way (fig. 8, second display) in step 107.When accepting the entered word by pressing the left soft key 25 this wordwill be added to the text. Hereafter the key stroke string is cleared instep 106and the editor starts to wait for a key stroke instep 100.

If the predictive editor program were able to find matches instep 103 thepreferred one is displayed instep 108. In step 109 the next key stroke is read.Instep 110 it is checked whether the user searches for alternative matches bypressing the "*" key 66. If this is the case the alternative match is displayed instep 111.

Instep 112 it is checked whether the user accepts the displayed word bypressing the space key. If this is the case the word will no longer be activeand will be added to the entered string of words instep 113. Hereafter the keystroke string is cleared instep 106 and the editor starts to wait for a key strokeinstep 100.

If the key stoke is deemed to represent an ambiguous character the editorgoes to step 101 for adding the key stroke to the key stroke string for lookingfor matches.

Claims (10)

1. A communication terminal having:

   a display;

   a keypad having a plurality of keys associated with several letters each;

   processor means controlling the display means in accordance with theoperation of the keypad;

   a predictive editor program for generating an output containing wordmatching a received string of ambiguous key strokes, said predictive editorprogram has a number of associated vocabularies including at least onelanguage dependent dictionary and at least one dictionary receiving userdefined inputs;

   an editor application controlled by the processor means communicateswith said predictive editor programs for generating matching words basedon an ambiguous string of key strokes;

   second memory means of the communication terminal for storing userinputted data in a electronic database;

   said processor means automatically searches said second memory meansfor words and copies these words into said at least one dictionary forreceiving user defined inputs and associated with said predictive editorprogram.
2. A communication terminal according to claim 1 wherein said secondmemory means is an electronic phonebook database containing names andassociated phone numbers.
3. A communication terminal according to claim 2 wherein said electronicphonebook database is stored on a Subscriber Identity Module in a cellularphone.
4. A communication terminal having:

   a display;

   a keypad having a plurality of keys associated with several letters each;

   processor means controlling the display means in accordance with theoperation of the keypad;

   a predictive editor program for generating an output containing wordsmatching a received string of ambiguous key strokes, said predictive editorprogram has a number of associated vocabularies including at least onelanguage dependent dictionary and at least one dictionary receiving userdefined inputs;

   an editor application controlled by the processor means communicateswith said predictive editor programs for generating matching words basedon an ambiguous string of key strokes, said editor application stores wordsthat have to be entered in an unambiguous way in one of said least onedictionary receiving user defined inputs;

   said processor means associated a storing time for the unambiguouslyentered words stored in dictionary receiving user defined inputs; and

   said processor means maintains the dictionary containing theunambiguously entered words in dependence of the storing time.
5. A communication terminal according to claim 4 wherein the processormeans updates the storing time every time the word is used by the editorapplication.
6. A communication terminal according to claim 5 wherein the dictionarycontaining the unambiguously entered words is built up as a cyclic buffer,where the word having the oldest storing time is removed from the memorywhen a new word is added and the buffer is full.
7. A communication terminal having:

   a display;

   a keypad having a plurality of keys associated with several letters each;

   processor means controlling the display means in accordance with theoperation of the keypad;

   a predictive editor program for generating an output containing wordmatching a received string of ambiguous key strokes;

   an editor application controlled by the processor means for editing a textbased on the predictive editor programs interpretation of key strokes, andcomprising:

   means for storing string of entered words,

   means for storing a sequence of key stokes, said sequence is updatedupon the occurrence of a new key stroke, and being used as input tothe predictive editor program,

   means for storing a list of matching words received from said predictiveeditor program,

   said processor means combines the text string and one word from the listof matching words for displaying in the display of at least a part of said textstring and one word from the list of matching words, said one word fromthe list of matching words is marked in comparison to the remaining part ofthe text string and added to the text string upon acknowledgement by theuser.
8. A communication terminal according to claim 7 wherein the keypad has akey for requesting the processor to replace said one word from the list ofmatching words, and said processor handling this list of matching words asand endless loop.
9. A communication terminal according to claim 7 wherein the a keypad has akey for requesting input of a special sign from a list of special signs in the textstring, and wherein the a keypad has a key for requesting the processor to replace a special sign with the next special sign from the list of special signs,and said processor handling this list of special signs as and endless loop.
10. A communication terminal according to claim 7 wherein the editorapplication opens a word for editing with the predictive editor program when acursor is placed at the beginning or the ending of the word, whereby the editorapplication regenerates a sequence of key strokes based on the presentlydisplayed match, and whereby the editor application adds new key strokes tothe regenerated sequence of key stokes in dependense of the position of thecursor and the key pressed.

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